Note: As usual I didn't fall off the face of the Earth, I guess you're used to my random silences by now... I always think I will update sooner but life often decides otherwise, but here I am again and this time with a chapter you've been requesting for a year (it didn't seem that long when I thought of it... sorry!)
There aren't many chapters left for this fic and everything that was planned for the end came back to my mind (yes, I had forgotten my ideas, and I hadn't written them down...) so as weird as it sounds, TSFMS is almost over. That was a long and pleasant journey and I hope you enjoyed it as much as me, but for now, let's go on with this chapter and the following ones, we're almost there, but not yet though!

Mello
"Pull the curtains open, please." I asked the nurse before she left. She wiped the tears out of her eyes as she walked to the windows that was giving on the hospital gardens. My sorrow was apparently contagious... "No, the other ones." I told her, showing her the curtains that were closing my view on the corridor with my chin.
She did it and left after the lawyer asked her to, giving me a last look full of worry. I tried to smile to her but she knew if was just as fake as the one she gave me back.

Now I could see that there were two huge guys outside indeed, just as I had suspected from the large shadows they had cast through the fabric when it was still closed. I was really shocked though, when I recognised the LAPD uniform they were both wearing. The police, really?
It couldn't have anything to do with my accident, the questioning and all had long been taken care of. So... was I charged with something again? Had Mail's mother sued me for something to protect me and keep me here in the US because my parents were coming to take me? But they couldn't do it without my consent... or could they?
I was pretty confused at that point.
Then it occurred to me that Mail and his parents had apparently been asked to stay safe at home. It was just so they wouldn't meet my parents and get in a fight with them, right?

I felt a cold shiver run down my spine. The worry became a panic that met with the nagging feeling that Mail knew something he hadn't told me and that the cops weren't here for decorative purposes but because there was danger. And that danger may as well be coming for me.

I didn't have time to explore the dark thoughts that were about to swallow me whole because a knock resounded and my parents purely marched on me, almost pushing the lawyer that opened the door to them in the wall. I would have buried myself deeper in the mattress if I had been able to, because the look in my mother's eyes was insane. It had always scared me a little because she always looked so cold or disapproving, but this time it was batshit insane, like she was beyond crazy.
"Can we have some privacy with him?" my father asked. Him... he couldn't even name me anymore?
The lawyer left, and my mother pulled the curtains closed, which only made the panic flare in my gut.

She then turned to me, my father staying a few feet away from the bed, as if he was totally out of the matter, only observing.
"You're not my son." she said coldly.
"Oh, so you're disowning me? That's the trend in the family right now apparently so go ahead, as if I care..." I spat at her. Really? Was that all she could come with? I thought I had made it obvious that they weren't my family anymore anyway.
"She's not your biological mother, that's what she means." my father explained.
"I would never have given birth to such a failure, it's lucky I never mixed my blood with your father's, he's just as weak as you, as everyone in their bloodline." she seethed, and I didn't have time to ask any question although many came suddenly to my mind hearing that, because she went on: "I will NOT let the family business in the hands of a stranger, and I will NOT lose everything because your father's genes are corrupted."

I looked at my father. He was letting her belittle him without a blink. He was weak indeed, if that woman – I couldn't call her my mother anymore at that point – could just treat him like a puppet without him standing up for himself. Everything was so wrong in the situation, and yet it just felt normal to me now that she had never treated me like her son: I wasn't.
But I was really confused, and the exhaustion didn't help my brain function properly.

She wasn't my mother, okay, but why did she marry my father (who I was sure at least was my biological father, even without them saying it, we looked too much alike) if she despised him that much? Had she always had? And what about my real mother? And what was that fucking family business that was so important she was ready to go to such lengths to protect it?

"What do you want from me? My grandfather is obviously not my biological grandfather, so why not divorce my father if this is your family business? Why not take it over without him?"
They kept on coming here and nothing ever came out of it so it would be about time that they told me the truth.

"Don't you think I would have gotten rid of him already if I could?"
My father winced at the choice of words. So it touched him a little, at least...
"I'm still a very influential person in the political world, and-"
"That's enough." she cut him, "We're not here to teach him about the ins and outs of this. You little shit, either you help us, or I won't be the one to lose everything."
So that was all it was about: a threat.

They seemed to be waiting for an answer, staring at me so intensely that I couldn't even reply. What could I say anyway? And why was no one helping me? Where was the lawyer? Why did the cops guard me if they just stayed outside doing nothing? The threats weren't even hidden and no one seemed to care that I was alone with two maniacs!
I suddenly noticed that my father had been looking around the room for the second or third time since they had entered, and it dawned on me that he was looking for apparent bugs. And everything fell into place.

All the hints I had had until now finally connected to complete the puzzle: no one moved outside because they were hearing us. And despite what had been said to me, no one reacted because they were waiting for more. I was being used and there was something they wanted to hear from my parents, thus the fact that the lawyer had told me they had to be the ones to tell me, whatever it was that he was thinking about. I had thought at first that it was because I had to hear it from them, but it was not that considerate. They had been using the situation as a trap for my parents.
But whatever it was that they should be telling me, it hadn't been said yet since everyone was still waiting.

That raised another question: who were my parents? What was their real motivation? What was that business? There was an illegal part to it for sure, but to what extent?
I was feeling nauseated, it was too much information, too much happening right now, and I was just so tired...

"What do you decide?" my father prompted me.
"I'm not sure I understand what more you could do than what you already have, you were ready to jeopardise my life to bring me back, so-"
I began to shake badly. It was uncontrollable. I was suddenly so cold and all I could do was try to reach for the little remote button to call the nurse. But as I was about to press it, a hand stopped me.
The bitch had caught my wrist, and the look she gave me was frightening. That's when I understood that she would stop at nothing to convince me. Nothing moved her. She had no pity, no regret, nothing. I was there helpless and in need for care, and she would stop me from getting it. She was a monster. And she knew that I had understood what she meant.

Matt
I couldn't drive fast enough to reach the hospital, I was beyond worried, and Mihael's sobs were echoing in my head, making it even worse. I was heartbroken because he was in deep sorrow, and I needed to be with him. I was ready to never leave his side anymore, I'd live in the hospital if I had to, but I would never leave him alone again.
I barely parked my car, taking half of the spot near mine and totally uncaring for that fact, and ran to the entrance.
I crossed the corridors as fast as I could and reached Mihael's room where two cops stopped me from entering.
"Mail." the lawyer began, "You can't."
"Are they here?" I asked, not needing to be precise, and the man nodded.
"What do they want?"
"Same old." he answered, shrugging.
"So why coming once more? Mihael won't change his mind, they should know by now." I was angry. Angry that they would let Mihael be subjected to the ordeal once again. Angry at Mihael's parents for being so persistent. Angry at myself that I could do nothing to change the situation.
The lawyer was about to say something, but he seemed to think better of it and closed his mouth as he was about to speak. I scrutinised him for a few seconds, but he didn't change his mind. It told me that there was more to it than just the 'same old', obviously.

"I'm going in." I said, and opened the door before he or the cops could stop me.

Mihael's parents were surprised to see me, to say the least.
All I saw was their stunned face, and Mihael's mother holding his wrist firmly. Then I saw Mihael's distress and my blood started boiling.
I threw myself at her. It was too much. Too much worry, too much stress, too much they had done. Everything piled up and I let it all out on the witch that had been morally hurting Mihael for so long, and was now even physically hurting him. I grabbed her own wrist and separated her from Mihael, pushing her away harshly, to the point she almost fell.
"DON'T YOU DARE!" I yelled at her, marching on her, ready to punch her in the face. There was no thinking about the consequences or that 'no hitting a woman' shit going on in my mind, there was only the need to protect Mihael, and I would go as far as needed for that.

She took a step back, looking at me with even more surprise, but I was already back to Mihael, taking his hand and sitting next to him to comfort him. It was so cold and shaky... I pressed the button for the nurse to come but no one came after a while, and Mihael's parents were still there staring at me, burning a hole in my back, and it was driving me crazy.
"WHY AREN'T YOU GONE ALREADY?!" I yelled at them, exasperated, as I stood up and walked to the door.
"We aren't finished yet." the woman said as I opened the door.
"CAN SOMEONE GET A NURSE TO BRING HER ASS HERE?" I wasn't done shouting, totally flying off the handle, "AND YOU, GET OUT!"
I grabbed Mihael's parents both by an arm and pulled them out. His father didn't resist much and passed the doorframe, but the witch tried to resist, and I lost it. I slapped her. Hard.
She brought her palm to her face, looking at me in disbelief, just as everyone around me.
"Listen to me old witch," I couldn't say I towered over her but my attitude was enough for her to cave in nonetheless, "Try anything, anything, against Mihael, and you'll head back to Berlin in a coffin."
She was about to retort something but her husband pulled her by the arm while speaking in German, and they finally left after she gave me a nasty look.

"Are you crazy?" the lawyer said to me once they were gone for good, as I sat beside Mihael on the bed, trying to get him to calm down. The nurse finally arrived, and she left again after checking on Mihael, only to be back with a syringe. I totally ignored the man as he was ranting in my back about how careless I had been and such. Only Mihael mattered, and he fortunately stopped shaking a few seconds after the injection.
"It'll be alright now." Miss Double Ds reassured me with a small smile, "It's not right, what you do." she threw at the lawyer, "You should be ashamed of yourself!"
She left, but not before she had sent a disapproving look to the lawyer, al the while shaking her head.
I took Mihael's hand back, and stroked his hair as he stared at me, as if he wanted to make sure I wouldn't leave him. I brought his palm to my lips and deposited a kiss there, giving him a smile.
"I'm here, it's okay now my love."

The man closed the door behind the nurse.
"You threatened her. Who on earth does something like that? It was already bad that you had to barge in and interrupted everything, you threaten her on top of that! What did you not understand in "stay home and wait"?"
"Say one more word and I'll take care of you too."